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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: clip · cold · cue · bat · bay · cell · saw · race

  1. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  10. She's very handy with a ________________.
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  14. My mare is ________________ in color.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  18. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. He works in a ________________ mill.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. cold — an illness
  4. clip — a video
  5. cue — a hint
  6. clip — to cut
  7. cold — not warm
  8. clip — for paper
  9. cue — a signal
  10. saw — the tool
  11. race — a contest
  12. race — humankind
  13. cue — for pool
  14. bay — a horse colour
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. bat — the animal
  17. bay — a part of the sea
  18. bay — to keep at bay
  19. race — the arms race
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. saw — the tool
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. cell — in biology

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com